Kaluwanchikudy patients face crisis due to drug shortage

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 January 2004, 04:34 GMT]More than a thousand patients are seeking treatment daily at the outpatient clinic of the Kaluwanchikudy hospital in the Batticaloa district, and with a severe shortage of medicine at the hospital, poor patients who cannot afford to buy drugs are facing a serious crisis, said the District Medical Officer at the hospital, Dr. K.Vaseeharan.

Kaluwanchikudy is 35 km to the south of Batticaloa town.

People in the Kaluwanchikudy and Paduvankarai areas depend greatly on the hospital for treatments to their medical problems.

In the current weather, there is a flu-like disease spreading in the area, especially in Paduvankarai, and people of the village are going to the hospital for treatment. In normal times, about 500 patients daily seek treatment at the Kaluwanchikudy hospital and currently the number has gone up to more than 1000 patients.

The shortage of medicine at the hospital forces patients to buy drugs from private pharmacies. But many villagers cannot afford the drugs and are returning to their homes, and trying to manage without any medicine, aggravating their health conditions, hospital sources said.

Even the building at the hospital where patients used to rest is in a badly damaged condition, and patients are often seen waiting outside, on the roads and under tree shades, sources said.